February 26, 2014

Phillies Five: Taking a Look at the New Broadcasting Team

Last week on Phillies Five, we took a look at five reasons fans should be optimistic for the upcoming season. Today, as Spring Training game action officially gets underway, we will explore the current television broadcasters of the Phillies in order from least to most experienced in the profession.

5. Jamie Moyer

Moyer joined the broadcast team this offseason as a color analyst, with brief prior experience as a baseball analyst for ESPN. It is unknown how well he will succeed in his role as of right now, however he definitely has the right attitude going into this new phase of his life:

“There’s going to be times where I stumble, but that’s the fun of it. Showing the human side is the important thing here.”

4. Matt Stairs

Like his former teammate in Moyer, Stairs also has had prior broadcasting experience, working for NESN after his baseball playing days.

He and Moyer will call 30 games together in the booth, and will surely mention many stories from the 2008 season. The two will switch-off on road trips, and Stairs joked the other day in his introductory press conference:

I do Cincy because Broxton is there.

It is also too early the gauge how Stairs will fit in working as a color commentator, however he surely has revealed a comedic side to him in recent weeks. Perhaps comedy is exactly what the booth needs as Comcast SportsNet looks to appeal to the next generation of baseball fans.

According to Phillies.com, Moyer will work 109 games overall, and Stairs will work 108 total.

Schmidt, 64, worked for PRISM, the Phillies' television network prior to Comcast SportsNet's existence, for just one season in 1990. He had a positive reputation then for being genuinely honest as a broadcaster.

Remaining absent from involvement in the organization until 2002, Schmidt signed-on as a special hitting instructor down in Spring Training. Schmidt continued that role upon until this offseason, where he could not attend due to "undisclosed health issues". In 2004, he took a brief hiatus from being a special hitting instructor and took the managerial position for the Single-A Clearwater team in the organization.

Schmidt is expected to broadcast just 13 games this season for Comcast SportsNet, all on Sunday home games at Citizens Bank Park. He will work with McCarthy and either Stairs or Moyer. All four will never be in the booth at the same time.

2. Gregg Murphy

Surprisingly, in just one offseason, Murphy went from being one of the least experienced Phillies' television broadcasters to one of the most experienced.

Joining Comcast SportsNet in December of 2008, Murphy had worked in roles as hosts of Daily News Live and also SportsNite, before joining the broadcast team for the start of the 2012 season.

In now his third season, Murphy is an in-stadium broadcaster, in that he reports from various locations throughout stadiums to discuss happenings in the game and/or Around the League news in his "notebook".

1. Tom McCarthy

Tom McCarthy is currently the most experienced broadcast on the Phillies' television team. However, McCarthy was not always on the tube, as he was the radio play-by-play voice for the Phils from 2001 to 2005 and also served as pre- and post-game radio host.

Having left to join the Mets' broadcasting team, McCarthy return to Philadelphia as a television broadcaster on a five-year contract. He took over on a full-time basis as the head play-by-play voice in April of 2009, following the passing of Harry Kalas.

McCarthy has much knowledge in not only baseball, but football as well as he works for FOX during the NFL season. He truly knows the ins and outs of broadcasting, and has thus far been great at the helm of the Phillies television broadcasts. McCarthy enters his sixth season in this role.

Harry Kalas & Richie Ashburn

How could one have a list of Phillies broadcasters and not include the legendary duo that was the voice of Summer for 27 seasons, before Ashburn's passing in 1997? Together, they witnessed the magical 1983 and 1993 seasons, and of course 1980, the year the franchise earned their first ever World Series Championship.

Harry would continue on Whitey's legacy until his untimely death in April of 2009, six months after he ever so famously called the final out of their 2008 World Series championship.

Will any of the before-mentioned broadcasters ever grow to the legendary status that Harry and Richie have in Philadelphia broadcasting history? It is safe to refute such notion, however no fan in 1971 ever thought Harry, a broadcaster coming from Houston, would ever last as a Phillies broadcaster. Boy, were they wrong.

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In summation, the Phillies currently have a wide mix of baseball knowledge on their current broadcast team. From Moyer, a pitcher who arguably has seen it all and knows how to make the necessary adjustments, to Stairs, a perennial pinch-hitter who has much insight on how to excell in the clutch, to Schmidt, a Hall of Fame third baseman who is reknowned as the best ever in the game at that position, to Murphy in his in-stadium role as being the voice of the fan, and finally McCarthy, who provides necessary experience to the booth.

We will see what Moyer and Stairs has to bring as soon as today, Wednesday's Grapefruit League Opener against former Phillie, J.A. Happ, and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Schmidt is expected to make his first return to the booth in 24 years at some point in the next upcoming weeks.

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Matt Rappa is a contributor to Philliedelphia. Follow him on Twitter @mattrappa